Rainmaker
Skills ;Tidal Wave ;The Rainmaker brings forth a powerful wave of crushing damage that travels forward from the Rider. ;Healing Storm ;The Rainmaker casts a localized storm of healing rains that stays in one location until it is depleted. Lore There is a legend among the old and wizened of the "Valley of the Ancient Lake." that speaks of a place that was once called Hobgood, and what befell her sad, proud, people. In the beginning, the town was not much more than a dry, bedraggled village on the coast of an inland salt sea known as Urmia. There was only the most token dock for the rickety little boats of the poor fisher-folk to tie to, and that was a long walk up an uneven track from the rocky little harbor to the muddy village itself. The people of Hobgood were as tough as the weeds, clinging steadfast to life in the dust between their dwellings. Life was hard for them, but with perseverance and hard work, they eked out their meager existence. This would all change on the eve of the azure eclipse. While the people of Hobgood stood together on their shore in dumbfounded amazement, watching the moon dwindle to a thin blue crescent, a newcomer entered the town. The visitor was a bare-footed woman in her late middle-age. She was dressed in clothes ragged and travel-worn, and the ever-present dust caked her legs to the knee. The villagers found her at the well in the center of town, hungry and weak, leaning upon a simple, smooth staff of silvery old wood. Quickly, the people gathered the woman up and drew water for her form their well. It was briny from the salt in the soil and the lake, but more than the woman had drunk in days, so it seemed. The woman was then brought food. The meal was flatbread and bonefish with a cup of sour wine, the humble fare of the poor people of Hobgood. Still the woman accepted this meal with grace and ate every scrap. When the woman had finished her food, and gained some strength to speak, she told the people of Hobgood that her name was Callan, and that she had travelled far to the inland sea. She was on a pilgrimage, she told them, to follow the waters of the world to their many sources. "Water is our life," she told the people of Hobgood, "and as flows where it is needed most, so must I." The people were confused, but they allowed Callan to live in an unoccupied shack in the village for as long as she needed, and offered to share their meager food and water with her for as well. Callan thanked them, and moved into the shack. The next day, the rains began. At first, a gentle sprinkling mist washed over the town. The dust turned thick and cracked in the humid damp, but would soon be sluiced away completely as the mist rolled into a downpour and broke heavily over the town. It rained like this for a week. The inland sea rose two entire feet, and every wash and creek for miles ran with fresh water. When the clouds broke and the sun again touched the town of Hobgood, it was robbed of its former searing character. Instead it beamed, golden and reassuring throughout the day. Soon, the plains around Hobgood basked in healing warmth. For the first time in a century, the lands of the inland sea were green with life. Fishermen began to bring catches that were double, even triple what they had been in previous years. More crops were planted, and grew so unfailingly that a bit of grain, casually spilt, would be a tall stand of healthy wheat in a fortnight. For the first time, the people of Hobgood had more than they needed. The town of Hobgood grew then, as the people began to embrace trade on a much larger scale than before. Roads of smoothed stone replaced the dust and muck, new homes were built of fine materials, replacing the tumbledown fisherpeople's huts that once stood on the Hobgood shore. A grand stone marketplace was built in the center of town to shift the fresh fish and produce out to the rest of the world. The docks were rebuilt of stones and strong timber, brought from afar, and the new trade city of Hobgood began to shine like a new jewel. Word spread quickly of the bounty that the market at Hobgood provided and the wealth of the once-humble town grew enormously. Merchants came and built their fortunes in the city of wonder that grew around the bountiful market, and while small, the city of Hobgood became known throughout the land. Nobles and pilgrims both came to see this new city of delights, and the people grew rich and haughty, thus were the seeds of their own fate sown. When the Lord of the Five Golden Domes was said to be on his way to visit Hobgood, the new merchant leaders of the city flew into a near panic. There was none as rich and influential as this young warrior king, he was a legend. The entourage alone would fill the city's common houses, and the wealth and prestige that he would bestow upon the city would ensure that Hobgood would remain a gem upon the crown of the Urmian coastline. The merchants began a campaign to make the city as beautiful as they could. They began by chasing out the homeless and the pilgrims that came to wash themselves in the Sea of Urmia. No longer would they be permitted to dwell in the stone streets of the city of Hobgood. Instead all without quarters were sent away, to the farthest shores from the city. Next the dirty and the unfashionable were pressured to stay indoors. Harsh curfews were levied, though the merchant elite often somehow seemed immune. In the end, a push was made to destroy any structure that didn't fit the new elite's plan for the new Hobgood. New rules were quickly drafted about outside appearances and construction materials. A guard crew was sent to ensure that everyone would follow the rule, or abandon their "unworthy" homes. The people had forgotten about the woman Callan, who had all the while lived simply in the hut at the edge of town. The home that the people of Hobgood had granted her on that first night, during the Azure Eclipse, and if anyone had made a connection with her presence and their prosperity, they did not say so. When the city had grown up around her, Callan's little garden and hut had ended up, by chance, just within the new stone walls. Thus, when the guard came upon the humble old homestead, they cast the now elderly woman out of her little home. When they found her, she stood on her doorstep in the evening light awaiting them, leaning upon her simple staff. At first the old woman simply stared, but when the group threatened her she finally spoke, voice quavering. "When I came here, I found a good and humble people who gave despite having barely enough for themselves. I saw that they needed the healing water, and I brought it to them. Now, however, I see that the people have changed. No longer do they require the healing water. So, I will go, and I will take the rains with me!" With this, she held her staff aloft, and as the guards watched, dumbfounded it sprang to life. Azure energies shot skyward and pierced the clouds above, and wherever the light touched, the clouds disappeared. Soon the skies were as clear as they had been when the woman had arrived so long ago, only the harsh, pale face of the Duskstar remained. In that pallid light, Callan strode out of the city, and as she crossed beneath the gate, the wells in the city all dried up. Hardly anyone noticed. In the wee hours of the morning, long after she left, the people of Hobgood heard a rumble from the sea behind them. Some rushed to the wall to see, but many more simply continued in their revelry, never once considering the threat that they faced. Even those that saw it coming had no time to flee. A towering wave had risen from the Sea of Urmia and raged toward the walls of the city. The city of Hobgood was crushed by the wave, and nearly all within were lost. The broken ruins still sand today, though most believe it to be haunted and cursed. Travelers and fishermen avoid the area, and where the salt-crusted pillars of the old buildings stand, crooked in the marshy soil, it never, ever rains. The bards of the nearby Kingdom of Five Golden Domes still sing of the day that their young king's life was spared from certain death in the Great Wave of Hobgood when he was delayed after he stopped his caravan to offer assistance to an old woman, walking upon a simple staff in the rain. Category:Weapons